Rapid recap: Kansas State leadership turning a corner
Kansas State leadership turning a corner
Kansas State has seemed more connected on the court recently. After a point where leadership was open for application, K-State has started to develop more leaders. Every player for the Wildcats is a weapon and they’re working on filing it to make it sharper, which is a metaphor being used by head coach Jerome Tang.
The players are holding each other accountable and being good teammates on and off the court.
For the second straight press conference a player was asked about some struggles during a game and Arthur Kaluma backed his teammate, supported him and stood up for them. That wasn’t happening earlier in the year for Kansas State.
No such thing as ugly wins
Saturday was another gritty and tough win for K-State. The wins have not always looked pretty, but Tang will tell you that there is no such thing as an ugly win, only ugly losses. They have avoided most of those thus far, even if narrowly.
Kansas State is not at a point yet where they can just go score 80 or 90 points. Grinding out games and finding a way by any means necessary kind of has to be their recipe at this point, said their head coach. However, the Wildcats are now 5-1 in games decided by five points or less.
Big night for Kaluma
Kaluma had one of his best games of the season in the 70-66 win over Oklahoma State. The Creighton transfer had 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. He did end with five turnovers, though, but all of them were in the first half.
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An impressive feat for Kaluma was ending with 23 points despite not scoring for the first 16 minutes of the game. The junior went on a run to end the first half where he scored the final 11 points for K-State, and they needed every one of them. That was just to keep it within four at the break.
At the end of the first half, Tang told Kaluma to catch and shoot the ball instead of trying to distribute and force passes. He was putting it on the deck and being too unselfish, and that was causing the turnovers. Seeing the ball go in the basket was big for him.
Kaluma is shooting from three-point range at such a high percentage that teams have to respect his ability to shoot. Teams going after the wing on the perimeter has given him more driving lanes to exploit mis-matches and allowed him to find other open shooters, too.
